Western Digital on Wednesday started shipping a new version of its Scorpio Blue hard drive tailored for ultrabooks and otherwise thin notebooks. At 7mm tall, it fits in spaces where regular 9.5mm drives won’t but can still have as much as 500GB of space. The design has the simultaneous upside of lower power consumption and is purportedly the most efficient spinning hard drive in the field.
The SATA drive has added shock resistance of up to 400Gs and is billed as being quiet.
Although most ultrabooks will only get the drive pre-assembled from the factory, Western Digital is making the 7mm Scorpio Blue available as an aftermarket upgrade for most computers. A 320GB capacity will be available for $80, while the 500GB peak costs only slightly more at $100. Either should be available today.
